State and the law

The role of the state, and national legislation in particular, is absolutely crucial to the ‘modern slavery’ debate. Indeed, the construction of the concept of ‘modern slavery’ is itself predominantly reliant on individual states as well as the international and regional organisations they constitute. National legislation and international legal conventions determine the conditions under which phenomena are discursively constructed as instances of ‘modern slavery’ and when they are not. Similarly, state authority and complicity determines whether the forced movement of a man across national borders by a group of racist, violent thugs, leading to his death is classed as deportation (and hence ‘acceptable’) or ‘human trafficking’ and a form of ‘modern slavery’. Read on...

American understandings of trafficking concentrate on so-called ‘sex trafficking,’ however existing laws address many forms of labour exploitation. Too little is known about the effects of such laws on all workers.

Migrant smuggling is often cruel and exploitative, yet it is often the only way to escape poverty or conflict. Addressing this problem requires a fundamental re-think of migration regimes, including refugee policy.

The modern slavery act is seen as a righteous cause for many UK decision makers, however victims of exploitation do not share the simplistic moral narrative, seeking practical solutions not benevolence.

Anti-trafficking programmes give a humanitarian gloss to national anti-immigration controls, but the citizenship and immigration policies of nation-states are still the biggest danger facing many migrants today.

Anti-trafficking campaigns have their roots in 19th-century efforts to ‘save’ white women from ‘white slavery.’ Contemporary strategies broaden the stigmatisation and criminalisation, impacting a range of vulnerable communities.

Beyond Trafficking and Slavery seeks to help those trying to understand forced labour, trafficking and slavery by combining the rigour of academic scholarship with the clarity of journalism. Our goal is to use evidence-based advocacy to unveil the structural political, economic, and social root causes of global exploitation.

Gendered, racist, classist, homophobic, and transphobic violence haunts the world of sex work. Sex workers speak. Who listens? addresses that violence, but it does so from the perspective of sex workers themselves. By publishing their voices directly we hope to help readers resist indifference and to become more critical of states’ interventions.

The BTS Short Course brings 167 contributions from 150 top academics and practitioners into the world’s first open access ‘e-syllabus’ on forced labour, trafficking, and slavery. This eight-volume set is packed with insights from the some of the best and most progressive scholarship available. Read on...